Despite its low amount of memory and lack of “disk” space, I have to say that it is one of the most useful device I have bought — ranked all the way up there with my old Psion 5mx. I used it during the church retreat at the Easter weekend to type up all the notes (as well as connect to the conference centre’s open Wi-Fi to make sure OzBargain was still alive during my 4 days away). Beside super convenient, it also has that Wow-factor when people walk pass by.

With the recent announcement of Eee PC 900 series, the 701 series has really came down in price — you can now easily get one for less than $450 when you shop around, far cheaper than its release price of $499 back in December 2007.

And thanks to danilochan from ShoppingSquare for posting this deal, ASUS Eee PC at ShoppingSquare is now even cheaper! With coupon code C29C99 the 701 4GB can be yours for $399 + $24.50 delivery, brand new with 1 year manufacturer warranty! That is even cheaper than the retail price in Taiwan, where Eee PC was designed. And in China, where Eee PC was manufactured, the cheapest at the moment is 2750 Yuan (reference here), which is still more expensive than AUD$399.

Well done ShoppingSquare!

Too bad that I have already bought one but I know a few who would love to take the leap.

“If only she has her own computer that actually works“, sometimes I thought…

Then today we received the latest OfficeWorks catalogue in the mail (you can get the online version at Catalogue Central, but no direct link to the catalogue), and there are two lappies at around $500 — Asus EEE PC for $488, and Compaq Presario C710TU for $548 after cashback.

Asus EEE PC

• Intel Celeron-M ULV 353 900Mhz
• 512MB DDR2 RAM
• 4GB SSD
• 7″ LCD at 800×480
• Xandros Linux + KDE
• 0.92kg

Compaq Presario C710TU

• Intel Celeron M530 1730Mhz
• 512MB DDR2 RAM
• 80GB HDD
• 15.4″ LCD at 1280×800
• Windows Vista Home Basic
• Dual Layer DVD Writer
• 2.99g

Comparison

Specification-wise, the Compaq seems to win hands down. It is faster, bigger, comes with optical drive and larger storage. It actually comes with Windows that runs your favourite games like Free Cell and Minesweeper! However,

• Compaq Presario might be made in China but Asus EEE PC is manufactured in Taiwan so potentially better made (sorry I was born in Taiwan so the bias here :)
• 512MB is not enough for Vista, so I have to either (1) upgrade the RAM, or (2) install Linux
• You only buy it for $548 if you can successfully claim the $150 rebate.
• 2.99kg is maybe too heavy for a 3 1/2 year old, not that she is going to bring it to pre-school :)
• EEE PC with Linux probably has more Wow factor than Presario with Vista.
• Most importantly, because daddy wants to play with an EEE PC :)

Again, CFO at home (i.e. wife) needs to be consulted before making any financial commitment, however the likeliness of getting either is pretty slim, because 3 1/2 year old should not spend that much time in front of computers anyway.